After Rebirth, I Choose an Arranged Marriage

In my previous life, I lived for Shawn and I died for Shawn—

Only to hear him say, “I walked into this trap with my eyes open, just to gamble with your life.”

As he wished, I died by his hand.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the second day after Shawn Quintus fled our engagement.

He’d already been dragged back by my people. He struggled like a madman. “I’d rather die than marry you!”

Watching him lose his mind, I could only sigh. “Sorry.”

While he was still stunned, I took out a check.

“This is your compensation. From now on, we’re even.”

…

Shawn froze.

Then he snapped back to himself, snatched the check, and snarled, “You’d better keep your word.”

“You ran away from our engagement yesterday. Now everyone knows the Cage family’s eldest daughter has no self-respect, that I’m just a pathetic simp chasing after you. How would I dare cling to you now?”

He clearly didn’t believe a word I said. His face was cold and arrogant as he questioned me, “Then why the hell did you send so many people to grab me?”

I took out the document I’d prepared long ago. “To bring you back to sign this contract, so we can cut ties clean.”

It was a severance agreement.

From this day on, all debts, all grudges—wiped out.

“Lillith Cage, did you get reborn too?”

I didn’t answer. I only gestured for him to sign.

The tip of his pen had just touched the paper when Summer Hayes rushed out from behind him. “Shawn, don’t sign!”

Summer snatched the pen from Shawn’s hand and looked at me with those pitiful eyes. “Ms. Cage, Shawn didn’t mean to. It’s all my fault for being so useless.”

“I shouldn’t have called him. It was just a stomachache—I could’ve toughed it out. I was too selfish. If you’re mad, just blame me. Please don’t let this hurt what you two have.”

Taking advantage and still playing the victim—she really made me sick.

She wanted to provoke me, to make me furious, hysterical, out of control.

In my last life, she succeeded.

Back then, my entire world revolved around Shawn. Of course I couldn’t stand this kind of provocation.

And Summer knew that. She used it to keep me firmly in the palm of her hand.

She treated me like a walking ATM, scheming to make Shawn despise me while benefiting from everything he squeezed out of me, taking every advantage she could.

“Lillith, this time I won’t let you hurt Summer ever again.”

Watching Shawn step in front of Summer, shielding her with his body, scenes from my past life flashed through my mind, one after another.

Shawn was my first love.

In my previous life, I went camping in the mountains. A sudden storm hit, and I ran into a few punks.

When I was alone and desperate, it was Shawn who stepped in and saved me.

From that moment on, I launched a full-on assault to win him.

For eight whole years, I poured everything into Shawn, loving him with a kind of crazed devotion.

I even went so far as to drug him, hoping to force the issue and turn us into a done deal.

But Shawn would rather hurt himself than touch me.

“I’d rather die than love you.”

That was the sentence he said to me more than any other.

There were times I thought about giving up. But I couldn’t accept it. I was unwilling.

We kept reenacting the same fucked-up story: the spoiled heiress forcing her love on the delicate little husband.

Everyone in our circle knew we were a pair of lunatics.

Shawn trashed everything in his path, and I exhausted myself cleaning up the mess behind him.

One was willing to fight, the other willing to endure. We became the joke people whispered about over tea and after dinner.

During that time, Summer died in an accident. He was convinced I’d planned it.

He called me a murderer, smashed everything in the house, and came at me with a knife, ready to kill me.

When the Quintus family was on the brink of bankruptcy, he thought I was the one forcing him to submit.

He stormed into my office and told everyone that even if every other woman on earth dropped dead, he still wouldn’t love me.

Eight years. In those eight years, Shawn went from a gentle, refined gentleman to a madman driven insane by me.

And I sank deeper and deeper into misery.